Autism/Asperger's what age can you tell?

[STORM01]

Hi all

Im not going to pretend I know anything about these (pls excuse my ignorance) only I had a friend who's son had asperger's & I am starting to notice similar behaviour in my 7 month old.

Probably just normal baby behaviour & Im being an over protective 1st time mum (not to mention have not slept for 2 weeks with poorly DD) & so think Im starting to over analyse every thing.
You'll prob all think Im mad but any comments welcome.

The behaviour that is similar is playing with ears & touching tips of fingers together (reading in black & white I sound ridiculous),not holding eye contact & often vacantly stares & even if you move your hand right in front of her face she doesnt blink.
OK now I've re read this I sound so bloody stupid but please can someone just put their thoughts forward

My son has autism

Children at your childs age play with their fingers and ears. Issues re eye contact are more difficult to pin down as eye contact, shared attention etc develops at different rates.

The thing with asd is that some of the behaviours are usual except for the the intensity. So ds2 plays with his fingers, but does so for ages and still does so at age 14.

Your child could be showing signs but it is far far more likely that he is showing basic baby behaviours and you are spotting them because your friends child still does them at an older age. Do you see what I mean?

My advice would be to forget it for several reasons. One reason would be that your child needs you to display/model interaction. If you are peering and gawping and waggingbyour fingers then that is not usual interaction. Equally , if you make the possibility of asd into a huge spectre hanging over you then you make that incredibly damaging and negative when autism/aspergers is not the end of the world.

not that young

one of the things that makes Asperger's so hard to spot is that there are very few things that are an automatic - that's an Asperger's trait

everything my son (who has Asperger's) does is normal child behaviour, just more often/pronounced or continuing past the age when it usually stops

OK...thank you everyone. It would not be a problem to me even if she did have either....would love her just the same!...will just concentrate on getting her better (she has croup at the min)
Thanks for not biting my head off...was expecting a lot of negative comments.

I agree with pagwatch and smallwhitecat.

what you are describing could easily fall within normal developmental boundaries.

my dd1 is autistic. I knew tht htere was somehting "not right" developmentally with her from when she was about 7/8 months, but her behaviours were extreme (not noticing adults or world around her for hours. no interest in anything at all - just lying there placidly, again, for hours.) even then, it is only with the benefit of hindsight that i can trace worries back to 8 months. I first talked to hvs about her when she was 10 months old, and still not doing anything at all (and I mean, nothing), and still not noticing people at all - no interaction at all.

it still took nearly 2 years form tha tpoint to get a dx.

I totally agree with pagwatch when she says forget about it, and interact normally. that is what your dd needs most of all, whether ASD is present or not.

Never compare your child to an older autistic child. Autistic children do a LOT of things that are normal (constant fiddling is a normal child behavior) but they carry on - sometimes starting later.

Ds1, at 18 onths old, was a lump. he would either watch tv, be pushed around in his pushchair, play with bottles, or sleep and eat.

Normal 18 month old babies are not like this. They make demands - ds1 never made a demand in his life that wasn't for food or sleep until much much older. They attempt to make you understand what they want - Ds1 didn't want. I was still simply meeting his needs. They fiddle with everything they can reach - Ds1 touched nothing he wasn't specifically given until he was about 2. BUT HE STILL TOUCHES EVERYTHING NOW, AT NEARLY 8 YEARS OLD.

And there's the rub ..... if someone were to compare their 3 year old to my 7 year old, and match up the behaviors that 'prove' ds1 to be autistic, they would conclude that their 3 year old is autistic. But what is autistic for 7 is merely normal and expected for 3!

I would say that I first noticed that something 'wasn't quite right' with DD when she was 7/8 months old, and by 18 months, was sure there was something very 'different' about her.

Yes, I would say around 18 months or a bit before, when they change from "babies" to "toddlers".